9th Conference European Sociological Association

RN06 Critical Political Economy

Participation and self-management as a strategy for mitigation, reconstruction, prevention and social development in the 2008 global accumulation of capital systemic crisis

• Vratusa, Vera

  Sociology Belgrade University Faculty of Philosophy Belgrade, Serbia

Paper argues that the 2008 credit market crisis is just one of the manifestations of the global accumulation of capital systemic crisis cyclically reappearing due to the contradiction between potentially unlimited possibilities of the development of the social production forces, on the one hand, and limited aim of capitalist mode of life reproduction - private profit, on the other hand.

The most important effects of the ongoing crisis in different sectors of social activity and existence are presented in a comparative perspective on the basis of presently available evidence with special attention to dramatic increase in inequality, unemployment, hunger, morbidity, mortality and crime rate, recolonization war complex disasters.

The main finding of the paper is that the mass emergency impacts of the global accumulation of capital systemic crisis, can best be mitigated and prevented in the future through the participation of all concerned in decision-making and ownership affecting their life reproduction. Contemporary experiences of reconstruction of the social, economic and political institutions following a strategy of self-management and sustainable human development are compared to similar XXth century attempts at overcoming the class division of labor, exploitation, repression and systemic crisis.